- Australia’s premier music awards evening will be held at the Star Event Centre (Sydney) on November 28th when the ARIA awards ceremony will be hosted by our own international country superstar Keith Urban. The ARIA awards and ARIA Hall of Fame inductees will be announced at the ceremony and while we already know that Kasey Chamber will be deservedly inducted into the HoF, there will be hot competition for the ARIA Awards given the stellar year that Aussie acts have had locally and overseas.
- Top contenders for honours include singer/songwriter Amy Shark (9 nominations), indie favourite Courtney Barnett (8 nominations), dance trio Pnau (7 nominations), Tash Sultan (6 nominations), Dean Lewis (Be Alright topped the single charts for 5 weeks), Troy Sivan (4 nominations), and teen faves 5 Seconds of Summer (4 nominations). British pop star Rita Ora will turn up the international heat on the night. In our ARIA Winner Flashback section see our tribute to Deborah Conway,the ARIA Award Winner for Best Female Artist in 1992.
- Kasey Chambers appears to be the only new Hall of Fame inductee for 2018, but 4TR believes that it is now time to recognize the solo career of James Reyne, as well as the body of work of such groups as Mondo Rock, Powderfinger, Silverchair, The Living End, and Baby Animals. Future potential inductees worth considering should also include: Laurie Allen, Robie Porter, Rick Springfield, Mike Chapman, John Farrar (see more about Mike and John in our Q/A section), Matt Taylor, Guy Sebastian, Deborah Conway, Jenny Morris, Kate Ceberano, and Diesel, what do you think? Have your say. Check out our profile of Kasey and her 2002 career-defining hit Not Pretty Enough in our Hall of Fame Heroes section too.
- Troy Sivan continues to have an amazing year, he is a bona fide internet sensation with more than a million followers; his latest album Bloom won international acclaim, the breathy Dance to This duet with Ariana Grande, the intimately confessional Seventeen and the indie-folk vibe of The Good Side were all great tracks on the album. He is currently appearing with Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe in the film Boy Erased and is just back home after a sellout US tour, his next Melbourne performance will be at the NGV Gala which will coincide with the opening of the MC Escher exhibition on December 1st.
- Kylie Minogue will return to the Sydney Myer music Bowl for the first time since 1987 when she takes her Golden tour to the iconic venue on March 13th next year, 21 years ago Kylie performed there with her sister Dannii and Jason Donovan as stars of a Young Talent Time concert performance. Since that time Kylie has become the most successful female solo singer in Australian history, selling in excess of 100 million albums and still drawing crowds and hitting the charts at the age of 50! In our Special Feature discover how Stock, Aitken and Waterman almost let her slip through their fingers, because Pete Waterman saw no potential in recording Kylie!
- It was great to see that former US President Barack Obama included a Courtney Barnett song, Elevator Operator, on his playlist for the summer, but disappointing to note that our Prime Minister Scott Morrison, when given the opportunity to nominate his favourite 1980’s songs from a Spotify list of 147 tracks, chose only one Aussie song, Stimulation by Wa Wa Nee – was he in a bubble when INXS, Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil, Men at Work, Hunters and Collectors, Hoodoo Gurus, et al were storming the charts here and overseas with hit singles. Probably worth reminding ScoMo that the Australian music industry contributes $10.554 billion to the Australian economy and employs over 92,000 people.
- Tina Arena is not only a local fan favourite but an absolute superstar in France where she has sold over 3 million albums, we get the chance to see the diva do her thing when Opera Australia teams up with GFO for a recreation of the original 1978 Hal Prince production of Evita, starring Tina as Eva Peron, commences December 5th at the State Theatre (Melb)
- Lisa Origliasso, one half of the Veronicas, has recently married her long- term partner, US actor Logan Huffman in a stunning ceremony at Secrets on the Lake, on the Sunshine Coast, the wedding dress and ambience of the ceremony embodied the Victorian era as the happy couple vowed to love, honor and stay together 4ever.
4The Record 